Your Guide to Financial Independence

Menu

Your Vote Matters

We’re one day away from election day in Canada and the results will have a prominent effect on how the Canadian economy will shape up over the next 4 years. The party that gets elected will definitely have an impact on your own personal finances. With such a long campaigning period for this election, voters are probably feeling the fatigue and confusion surrounding all the candidates and their promises.

This shouldn’t prevent us from voting tomorrow. All of us should exercise our democratic rights and get out to vote tomorrow. There’s a reason why we live in Canada and that’s because we all have the ability to exercise our right to voice our opinions on who should be our country’s leaders.

Over the last 2 months, I’ve been able to compile a list of some important policies that might have an immediate impact on your own personal finances. This being a personal finance blog, I’ve excluded policies that don’t relate. Take a read and if you’re interested in learning more about each party click on their logos.

Lower the federal income tax rate to 20.5% for the income bracket between $44,700 and $89,401. This represents a 1.5% savings for individuals from current tax rates. If you fall in this tax bracket, you’ll save an additional 1.5% for every dollar earned over $44,700 up to $89,401. If you exceed this tax bracket the total savings would be $670.51.

A new federal income tax bracket for earners over $200,000. This tax bracket would be taxed at a rate of 33% instead of the current 29%. This would push the highest tax bracket for provinces like New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario to over 50% for the highest earners.

Reduce EI premiums from $1.88 to $1.65 per $100 earned. The maximum an employee contributes is currently $930.60 for the calendar year of 2015. The total amount has not yet been announced, but the amount reduced from your paycheque would decrease giving you an extra bit of cash flow.

Enact a law allowing Canadians to use their RRSPs to buy homes after a life changing event without incurring a penalty. This might mean that you’ll be able to buy a house using your retirement funds when you have a kid, divorce, retire, etc…

Slash the TFSA contribution limit back to $5500 and continue having the amount indexed to inflation. This would not be enforced retroactively, allowing those that contributed $10,000 in 2015 to keep it in their accounts.

Allow individuals with student loans to avoid paying back the debt until they start making over $25,000 per year.

Open discussions to increase Canadian Pension Plan contributions to allow Canadians to earn up to $25,000 through the plan when payments kicks in.

Increase the Child Benefit plan to an average of $533 per child for eligible families. The lowest earning income parents will have the opportunity to receive up to $983.33 per child if they are working minimum wage. All of this is tax free.

Create a permanent renovations tax credit of $5000 that allows families that renovate their homes to claim that amount during tax returns.

The TFSA limit will remain at $10,000 and will not be indexed to inflation for future gains. There are no plans to tax gains made in a TFSA nor will the withdrawals be counted as earned income for tax and benefits calculations.

Small business owners would see their taxation level lowered to 9% from the current 11%.

EI premiums would be cut from the current $1.88 to $1.49 per $100 earned. The changes will be phased in with the lower rate being adopted in 2017.

The First Time Home Buyers Plan would have the withdrawal limit raised from $25,000 to $35,000. There are no provisions to allow the use of funds from the RRSP for home buying past the first house for each individual.

Increase matching funds in the RESP program for middle to low income earners. Individuals with kids earning less than $44,000 per year would get $200 for the first $500 contributed while those earning up to $88,000 would receive $100 for the first $500 contributed.

Extending parental leave from the current 12 month to 18 months for which individuals will be eligible to receive EI benefits.

Decrease small business tax from the current 11% to 9% and raise corporate income tax to 17% from the current 15%

Increase the GIS (Guaranteed Income Supplement) to seniors so that seniors without significant income are given increases to support their living costs

Restore the age of retirement to start collecting old age benefits back to 65 from the increase to 67 that was implemented by the Conservative government.

Remove income splitting for families other than seniors. This means a high earner can no longer pass income down to another person in the family to reduce taxes

Remove the income tax loophole where executives at corporations were being compensated with stock options and paying less taxes

EI premiums would be frozen and eligibility requirements for collection employment insurance would be eased to allow more individuals to qualify.

The TFSA would be decreased from the current $10,000 to the $5,500 limit. This decrease probably wouldn’t be applied to contributions already made for 2015. There was no official response from the party whether the TFSA would be continued to be indexed to inflation or if possible taxes on withdrawals for wealthy individuals would be applied.

Creation of 60,000 day care spots for low income families that will cost no more than $15 a day.

Allow parental leave for the second parent to 5 weeks in addition to the current 12 month period for a single individual

Increase corporate income tax from 15% to 16.5% and raise taxes for oil companies and banks from 15% to 20%

Forgive all students loans that are over $10,000 and cut tuition fees for students in the future

The TFSA contribution would be rolled back to the limit of $5500 for subsequent years. Changes won’t affect 2015 contributions that are already made. The TFSA limit would continue to be indexed to inflation with no plans to tax individuals on withdrawals.